The Falling
by MayaKiba
Summary: The world has been destroyed. Only a quater of the entire population remains virtually untouched. They are hiding and they are scared. But most of all, they are determined to fight for their family. Their comrades. Only one place has remained untouched, and it's the only place they can turn to.
1. Chapter 1

"This is the only thing that I could think of." Shikamaru said for the tenth time.

"It's not going to work. I know that you're great at this sort of thing, but this is something that would never work no matter which way you look at it." Choji disagreed.

"Choji, it's the only thing we've got. There's no other way. We have to try. I know it's brash and spontaneous and a total drag, but we have to, unless you can think of anything else."

Choji paused, then nodded. "Fine. We'll try."

Shikamaru managed a weak smile. "Let's go."

* * *

He was not happy with this proposal, but the Akatsuki could use this to their advantage.

"What would you give us if we let you stay here, un?" Deidara asked.

"We could maybe protect you?" Shikamaru tried.

"From what?"

"From these people."

Deidara scoffed.

"Or from the nations once we get back on track."

"How do you mean?"

Shikamaru paused and looked over to Choji from help, but his friend wasn't offering anything.

"I'm waiting, un." Deidara said.

"Um... Well we'll get your criminal record wiped clean and you won't be outlaws until you do something wrong again."

The Akatsuki chewed the inside of his mouth while he thought about the young shinobi's proposal. "Fine." he said. "We'll let you stay, and you can bring anyone else that you can find. The hideout is the only place that hasn't been ransacked and I'm trusting you to not rat us out. Otherwise, your friend won't live to see tomorrow. We know what these guys look like. You got that, un?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

* * *

"No." Pein said once Deidara had run Shikamaru and Choji's arrival past him.

"Why not?"

"Why should we. We owe him nothing and I don't see why we should."

"Think about it for a minute though." Konan said, ever the voice of reason. "The Akatsuki was originally formed to fight for freedom and the ending of war. Peace. This is the ideal time to gather up our forces and stop this monstrosity once and for all. The people will see how strong we are and that we _do_ mean peace. They'll leave us alone. Instead of coming to kill us, they'll be coming to praise us. Or have you gotten corrupted with time? Have you forgotten our purpose? Have you forgotten what Yahiko died for?"

Pein wasn't usually challenged. What he said usually went. But today, both Deidara and Konan were challenging his authority.

"I have not been corrupted and I am fully aware of what Yahiko died for. Let me see them."

"Shall we just let them see this body or you yourself."

"Myself. I need to show them that I trust them."

Konan smiled at Nagato's favourite body, Yahiko (Deva path) and went to retrieve the shinobi leaving Deidara confused by this. He always thought that this was the body of the Akatsuki leader.

* * *

Shikamaru and Choji found it awkawrd at first coming to the hideout and pleading thier case to the very intimidating Akatsuki leader, Nagato. He pretended to not let them in at first, to see how they would plead their case. He was, in fact, more than happy to let them into his, what you might call, home.

Explaining their arrival to the rest of the Akatsuki was something that Nagato thought that he should do himself, in person, and it took a very long time for them to accept it.

Shikamaru knew that they had been here for a long time and he was fully aware of the fact that he had made no move to try and save his friends and family. But first, he knew that he needed help in getting them and, no direspect to his best friend, but Choji wasn't strong enough on his own yet. He was a liability to the Nara boy. He left the hideout almost a week before arriving there and snuck into the night.

**-****_To be continued-_**


	2. Chapter 2

She was lay on the floor, too weak to move. She was scared and alone. Her blood had dried on the stone and her skin. Her clothes had been torn and various pieces of the material were strewn carelessly on the floor. Her purple hair felt abused on her scalp from various pullings. Her chakra was low and she only ever used it to activate her byakugan to see when her kidnapper was about to come through the door so that she could mentally prepare herself for the torture that was bound to come her way soon enough. Her wrists were sore from the rope that restricted them. She had struggled against them, but she only bled.

She heard footsteps. They were getting louder and louder as he drew closer and closer. Her chakra was too low to activate her ocular jutsu. She felt tears well up in her eyes. She tried to blink them back, but that only made them spill over her cheeks. Her master would punish her for this act of weakness. He despised weak people.

He opened the door and Hinata whimpered slightly. She looked into his eyes and saw that he was in a very bad mood and her wet eyes only worsened it. She was going to get it bad today.

He skulked over to her and hit her. She held back her cry of pain. He wasn't satisfied. He wanted to hear her scream.

A sadistic smile spread across his face as he moved over to the tray that held his instuments of torture. He decided on a simple kunai. He took the small knife and walked back over to Hinata who took one look at the lethal ninja tool and her mind was racing with all the things her could do to her.

He propped her up against the wall in a sitting position before her knelt in from of her and whispered, "Hello, princess."

She didn't reply.

He put the knife to her already bruised cheek and dug the tip in, drawing blood. She grunted. He pulled it down, cutting as he did, causing Hinata to hiss in pain.

He took it out and she almost let out a sigh of releif. Maybe he wasn't in such a bad mood. Maybe he had developed a conscious while he was gone.

The kunai embedded itself into her upper thigh. She screamed, shocked by the intrusion. She'd given him exactly what he wanted. He smiled and plunged the weapon into her other thigh. She tried to supress the cry and grunted instead, but that just made him determined to do more.

He moved away to get something else. Hinata couldn't stop the tears streaming down her face. Why couldn't he just kill her and get it over with? Why did he have to drag it out?

"Are you going to be a good girl?" he asked slowly showing her the weapon he had come back with.

She nodded hastily, but was repulsed by her own weakness.

"Good." he said before plunging the sword into her stomach.

* * *

Where is she? Shikamaru thought to himself as he looked around the wreck that was once Konoha. He stuck to the shadows of the night so that he wasn't seen. Rethinking this, maybe it wasn't the best idea to go out at night when he was defenseless. But he was here now and he wasn't going to head back without scowering the whole of Konoha for her. He _would_ find her.

The Hidden Leaf Village was a mess. It looked especially worse at night. The shadows were cast in all the wrong places, highlighting all the worse things in the village. He was disgusted by the sight of it. How could somebody do this? How could he have just run away and hide? He was more disgusted by his own actions than the actions of others. If he had just pulled himself together and tried to help more than he did, the entire turn out of this event could be so different. He dismissed those thoughts. They were doing him no good and they were distracting him. He had to be on high alert if he didn't want to be caught. If he wanted to find Lady Tsunade.

Suddenly he remembered something Naruto had told him a while back when they were twelve. In the Hokage mountains (which was ironically the only thing that was left intact) there was a secret room. If she was anywhere, she'd be there. He smiled slightly and set off to find the secret passageway thanking Naruto's name the whole way.

* * *

The sound of his footsteps bounced off the walls with such a large echo Shikamaru winced everytime that he put his foot down. He knew that he was screwed before if anyone attacked him, but now there was absolutely _no_ light and, if anyone was in here, they could hear him from a mile off and he couldn't fight back very effectively without his signature jutsu. He just hoped that it Lady Tsunade _was_ in here and not one of the lowlife's.

* * *

Tsunade was scared out of her wits. She felt useless. She didn't deserve to be called a shinobi never mind Hokage. What kind of leader was she if she crumbled under pressure. Her irrational fear came back during the war too - her fear of blood. She couldn't heal many, and those she did never made it back into combat, for they were killed as soon as she had finished her work. She had no idea what the death toll was, but she was sure that it had hit the roof and plummeted back down with such a crash it shook the earth.

She heard the footsteps just as the unknown shinobi (or rogue) entered her hiding place. She started the shake. She couldn't dismiss the thought that it could be one on _them_. How had they found her? And so soon? She didn't understand. Maybe one of the Leaf ninja had crumbled too, telling one of them where their leader was to save their own skin. Not that she could blame them. If she had a leader as cowardly as herself then she would have done the same thing.

_Tap tap tap_. It was getting louder.

_Tap tap tap_. They were getting closer.

_Tap_. She was trapped. _Tap_. She had no chakra. _Tap._ By this point she thanked the Gods that she had lived this long. She had accepted death and was ready to face it standing tall, now cowering in a corner. She took the last kunai from her weapons bag and was poised for her battle.

He came around the corner and she charged at him. Going at him with everything she had. She was going to kill this one if it was the last thing she did...

_**-To be continued-**_


End file.
